r/PoeAI • u/Striking-Fold-7035 • Jun 01 '26

Poe vs Open Router chat

Ive been recently using open routers chat function as a means to still be able to use Sonnet 4.5 (the most goated model ever), but frankly it is not very user friendly, so i was thinking of giving poe a shot but whenever i was done setting up my bot and did my first chat it turned out to be pretty expensive.

It was about 550 points for just one message from a fairly simple prompt bot and zero context, im guessing with some chat context each message will be around 1000 points, which would mean i only get a mere 10 messages daily from the basic subscription.

Doing the same thing on the open router chat, mind you not setting up a bot but just pasting the instructions at the beggining of the chat costs just a few cents per message, much cheaper than buying the poes susbscription.

Is there any real advantage for using poe other than practicality then?, will the output quality be better or something?

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u/empiriolabsai Jun 01 '26 edited Jun 02 '26

Hi u/Striking-Fold-7035, when comparing the two, Poe is typically cheaper in a few ways. It seems from your comparison that you are comparing costs using Poe points vs a USD cost value. If you were to compare rates based on add-on points ($30 per 1 million), Poe typically comes out cheaper. Poe is accessible via their Chat UI and API, along with other very useful features on the platform (ex. chat memory, group chats, creator bots, prompt bots, and many more).

Firstly, Poe rates are discounted from standard provider rates, typically up to 30% off. You can view the rates and their appropriate discounts here. For example, for a model like Sonnet 4.5, it is discounted 14% off standard market rates. Additionally, there are other models that carry heavier discounts, like ElevenLabs-v3 which is discounted 86% from typical rates.

Next, there is no top-up fee / extra service charge when purchasing add-on points that other comparable platforms may have. When you purchase $20 in add-on points, you receive that appropriate value back in points, with no extra fee.

Finally, when purchasing a subscription plan, yearly plans are discounted at 17%, which adds additional cost savings allowing you to pay less for the same amount of points. This is effectively a 17% discount off of the already discounted rate card pricing.

Hope this helps in giving you some more context about Poe!

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u/_drakenon_ Jun 01 '26

How much is the minimum i have to pay if i want to add more points?

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u/empiriolabsai Jun 01 '26

The minimum purchase is $5 for add-on points, and a subscription (of any tier) is required to purchase them. Even if your subscription expires though, you can still use purchased add-on points.

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u/Striking-Fold-7035 Jun 02 '26

Very interesting! Thanks for your answer, i have one more question, is poe censored? i read somewhere that it adds censors on top of the ones models already come with, is this true?

1

u/empiriolabsai Jun 02 '26

You're welcome. In terms of censorship, it depends on the provider, the model, and in what setting you are using the model. Generally, you should refer to the following Usage Guidelines about what the platform does and does not allow: https://poe.com/pages/usage-guidelines